


The Night Off

by madamebomb



Series: The Hook Up Series [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Hijinks, Zuki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-07 18:45:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16859359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamebomb/pseuds/madamebomb
Summary: When the sexual tension between Suki and Zuko becomes a problem, Ty Lee and the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors set out to get them together. Whether they like it or not!





	1. One

Ty Lee pulled up short as she turned a corner on the way to the courtyard, brows drawing low as she spotted three of the Kyoshi Warriors crouched beneath one of the decorative stone walls enclosing the covered promenade from the open courtyard where the warriors usually did their training on warm days.

She’d expected them to be training, not crouching like spies.

“And just what is going on here?” Ty Lee said, eyebrow rising as the three girls jumped and whipped their heads in her direction.

“Shhhh!” Aiko hissed, reaching out and grasping Ty Lee’s hand, yanking her down behind the low brick wall and out of sight of the courtyard. “Keep your voice down!”

“What are you doing?”

“Watching.  _Duh_ ,” Qing said, rolling her eyes and gesturing wildly to the two people sparring in the sunlit arena, whom Ty Lee hadn’t paid much attention to until now.

A look of dawning realizing crossed Ty Lee’s face as her mouth formed a small ‘o’ that faded into an impish grin. “Are they doing it again?”

Aiko snorted. “They’re within fifty feet of each other, _of course_ they’re doing it again.”

“Just fuck already,” Kikki mumbled, making Ty Lee snort a laugh that she quickly stifled behind her hand.

“Kikki!”

“What?” Kikki said, turning wide eyes on the others. “Like you weren’t thinking it too. Look at them, the sexual tension between them is turning  _me_ on.”

Ty Lee grinned, peeping her eyes over the low wall, and watching as the two sparring figures circled one another, and then came at each other with banked fury. There was a palpable tension between them, sizzling and sparking like a lightning blast. It sent goosebumps down Ty Lee’s arms, watching the two of them make eye contact.

When Zuko caught Suki’s wrist, spun her and shoved her against one of the pillars, pinning her there, Ty Lee felt her heart jump, and her whole body tensed as the two of them stared at one another, that burning fire between them igniting.

“Just freaking kiss her, you idiot,” Ty Lee hissed through her teeth as Aiko made a frustrated noise beside her and pushed her hands together as if she were willing the two of them together with the power of her mind.

The moment passed, however, and Zuko let up, his feet dancing backward as Suki shoved away from the pillar, and rolled her shoulders. The Captain of the Kyoshi Warriors dropped into another stance and came at the Fire Lord with a well-aimed strike that took him in the gut. He dropped back, doubling over for a second, before feinting a punch that would have taken her in the chest if he’d truly been aiming for her—and he hadn’t been. Instead, the strike rolled across her shoulder as she sidestepped to avoid it; letting Zuko’s other arm come in beneath and grasp Suki by the arm she had brought up in defense.

She was ready for the move, and instead of letting Zuko’s momentum tug her forward, she rolled with it, turning and flipping Zuko across her back. He landed on his ass on the ground at her feet as she gave a playful “HYA!” and grinned down at him.

Suki stood over him, and Ty Lee heard her voice ring out across the courtyard.

“Yield?”

“Never,” Zuko said and rolled, catching Suki’s legs and knocking her to the ground. He rolled up, grasped her hands, intending to pin her down again, but she wrapped her legs around his waist and bucked upward. Her body arched into his and he fell on his back, with her straddling him. She grasped his wrists and pinned them to the ground beside his head.

“Yield?”

“No…” Zuko said stubbornly. “How did you do that?”

“You want me to teach you?”

“Yeah.”

“Yield.”

“Make me,” Zuko said and the grin on his face was practically obscene.

Qing groaned and hit her head against the wall. “Okay…she does know Zuko is flirting with her, right?”

“I didn’t know Zuko even knew how to flirt,” Aiko said, an impressed expression on her face.

“Me neither,” Ty Lee mused, watching as Suki grinned and said something to Zuko none of them could hear across the wide courtyard.

The four of them watched as Zuko sat up, and Suki settled into his lap, explaining the move she’d pulled on him…while not moving out of his lap. Zuko appeared to be listening intently, like a good student, but his hand was resting on Suki’s lower back, his thumb stroking her bare skin. And his mouth was cocked into the most bemused smile Ty Lee had ever seen on his face.

It wasn’t the kind of look Ty Lee saw on the Fire Lord’s face often. Zuko was tense as a rule, overworked in general and high strung at the best of times…

But with Suki…

With Suki, he was almost relaxed. He was almost happy.

“Do you think they’re already sleeping together?” Aiko asked, echoing the thought that had formed in the back of Ty Lee’s mind on more than one occasion. Especially over the last month, when things between the two of them had gone from mild flirtation to straight up burning sexual tension.

Straight up asking Suki about it, however, had been a mistake.

Ty Lee had never seen the calm and competent Suki so completely flustered in her life. There had been a tacit denial, a lot of blushing and then Suki had stormed off, tossing a “Don’t be ridiculous!” over her shoulder.

“I bet they did it when they were in Ba Sing Se last month,” Kikki said prosaically, pursing her lips as she nodded. “They’ve both been cranky bitches since they got back.”

“We’d probably know by now if they were sleeping together,” Ty Lee said thoughtfully, though she thought maybe Kikki had a point.

“None of the night shift girls have said anything,” Qing said. “He’s definitely sleeping alone.”

“So they either slept together in Ba Sing Se and now they’re not, for some reason… Or they just want to screw each other’s brains out…but haven’t. For some reason.”

“That sounds about right,” Ty Lee sighed.

“We’ve got to do something,” Aiko said darkly. “If they don’t hook up soon, I swear, I’m going to tie them both up and force them to admit that they like each other.”

“Yeah, that’ll go over well,” Qing snorted. “They’d both deny it if we confronted them. Suki’s too dedicated to her job. She’d think it was improper. Remember when I went out to dinner with that palace guard and she gave me a lecture? She doesn’t believe in mixing work and pleasure. She’d never make a move on Zuko.”

They watched the two roll to their feet, and go through the move Suki had been showing Zuko; slowly at first, and then with more speed until Zuko got the move down and he pinned Suki beneath him, just as she had done to him. His hair fell forward over one shoulder, having come down from its neat ponytail. It haloed their faces, as Suki said something that made Zuko smile.

“But would Zuko make a move on her?” Aiko asked, her gaze darting to Ty Lee, who knew both of them well.

Ty Lee watched as Suki stood and held out a hand to Zuko. She helped him up and as he gained his feet, his momentum brought them chest to chest. Zuko had that soft look on his face again, as Suki tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. He reached out a hand and gently pushed her hair out of her face.

Qing hitched in a breath, watching as Zuko said something to Suki that made her whole body shudder. Then she gently pushed Zuko back with a hand on his chest. When she turned away from him, it was with a determined, but strained look on her red face.

“I think that’s it for today,” Suki said loudly enough for them to hear, and there was a shake in her voice.

“Suki…”

“I have to go,” she said and then she jogged out of the courtyard in the opposite direction the four of them were crouching. Zuko watched her go with a strained expression on his face for a moment. Then he let loose, turning and kicking the head off of one of the practice dummies with a gigantic gout of flame that sizzled and crackled through the air.

Ty Lee could feel the heat of it from across the courtyard and watched as Zuko dropped back onto both feet and hung his head.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he snarled with feeling, putting his face in his hands. Ty Lee ducked down beneath the wall again and met the other girl’s eyes one by one. They listened as Zuko continued to curse to himself as he gathered up his shirt and left the courtyard.

“Yeah, that guy has it bad,” Aiko said. “I’ll eat my helmet if he hasn’t already made  _some_  kind of move and I don’t think it worked out in his favor.”

“So Suki doesn’t like him?” Qing said, confusion on her pretty face as she scrunched her button nose. “That’s not at all what I’ve been reading from her. I know body language and that girl is ready to climb him like a tree.”

“Maybe she has her reasons?” Ty Lee offered.

“Maybe our fearless captain needs to unclench once in a while,” Kikki groused. “Seriously, if they don’t resolve this tension soon, I’m gonna lose it. She’s always in a bad mood and Zuko’s a freaking mess. We’d all have an easier life if these two got their heads on straight.”

“I don’t even need them to bang, to be honest. If they’d both just take a night off to relax, I’d be happy,” Aiko said.

“Seconded. Suki definitely needs a night off.”

“Zuko too.”

“But they won’t take one. Or take each other,” Kikki laughed. “So what can we do about it?”

“I think…I have an idea,” Ty Lee said slowly, her mind whirring.

“What sort of idea?” Aiko asked, eyebrow arching as she saw the devious light in Ty Lee’s eyes. Ty Lee just grinned at her.

“Just trust me.”

“They’re going to hate us meddling,” Qing said, shaking her head, but there was a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“When we’re done with these two idiots, they won’t know  _what_  hit them,” Ty Lee vowed.


	2. Two

"Dammit," Zuko cursed, as his brush rolled off of his piles of paperwork with a splatter of dark ink. He dived after it, ducking under the side of the desk and snatching it off of the carpet. He winced as he saw the black spot of ink the bristles had left behind. "Shit."

"Problems?" someone said, making Zuko jump in his chair. He rammed his shoulder into the edge of the desk and yelped as he turned to look at Ty Lee standing before his desk. He rubbed his shoulder and glared at her as she stood before him, an amused smile on her face and one hand cocked onto her hip.

"The hell did you come from?" he groused, slapping the brush back down on the desk.

Ty Lee's painted brow quirked upward at his tone, but he was too disgruntled to care that he'd snapped at her.

"The door's open. I wasn't being quiet," she said, tilting her head toward the door of his office, which was always open during his working hours. He felt like it made him seem more accessible to his people.

"Most people knock first," he mumbled, sliding another stack of papers in front of him as Ty Lee's smile grew wider.

"Most people would have heard me come in," she said. "You're getting soft."

"And you're bothering me, so what do you want?" Zuko said, grabbing his brush and dipping it in the inkwell.

"Nothing… It's my shift this afternoon," she said, clasping her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her heels. "So whatcha doin'?"

"Paperwork."

"Sounds exciting."

"As exciting as watching ink dry," Zuko said dryly, signing a document without even reading it. "But it's probably slightly more exciting than watching me sign papers. Which is something you've never asked me about before, and I know that look on your face, Ty Lee, so whatever is going on in that head of yours just come out with it."

"Did you have sex with Suki?"

He smeared ink across his signature, his heart skipping a beat as his head jerked up. He stared at Ty Lee in shock, sure that he hadn't heard her correctly.

"What?"

"You heard me. Have you two slept together?" Ty Lee repeated earnestly, as glanced at the open door of his office with wide eyes.

"Keep your voice down!"

"Answer the question."

"Ty Lee!" Zuko choked, bolting up from his chair and rushing at the door. He glanced around the hallway, but there was no one there. He closed the door behind him with a soft click and turned back to face the Kyoshi Warrior, his face thunderous. "Someone could have heard you!"

"That's not a no," she observed. "So did you?"

"Why…uh…wh… Uh, what did Suki say?" he said slowly, and then winced.

"I'm not asking Suki, I'm asking you."

"It's none of your business, Ty Lee," Zuko snapped at her.

"That's definitely a yes, then," she said and then shook her head. "Don't bother denying it. It's written all over your face."

Zuko looked into her eyes and then let out a defeated breath. His shoulders sagged and he hung his head, rubbing at his forehead with his ink-stained fingers.

"Yeah. Okay, we…kinda slept together. Last month. In Ba Sing Se," he said miserably. "Don't tell anyone!"

"I won't," she said easily. "I mean, most of the girls already suspect that something happened between the two of you, but I won't tell them if you don't want me to."

Zuko stared at her in horror. "The girls know? How? Suki made it really clear that she didn't want anyone to know and if she–"

She held up her hands, stopping him, brows shooting up and her mouth open. "Whoa, calm down. Suki didn't say anything. I did ask her and she told me I was being ridiculous. That there was nothing between you two."

Zuko felt a stab of pain in his chest and his mouth closed,

"Oh." He licked his lips and walked back around to his desk. He sat down in his chair slowly, gingerly. "She did, huh?"

The look on Ty Lee's face was pitying. "She lied to me. Clearly."

"Just about us sleeping together…but she's not wrong. There's nothing between us," he said bitterly, and just barely stopped himself from saying more, afraid to give himself away even more than he already had. "What makes you think there is?"

"Because the two of you have been grouching around the palace since you got back, snapping everyone's heads off and acting like two people who know they like one another and are two stupid to do anything about it."

"I'm not…" he started and then grumbled, "I tried to do something about it. She's not interested."

Ty Lee lowered herself into one of the chairs in front of his desk, crossing her legs and tapping her closed fan on her knee.

"What makes you think she's not interested?" she asked gently.

"Because that's what Suki told me," he said and took a deep breath. "She made it pretty clear after we slept together that it was a one-time only thing and that nothing could happen between us ever again. That it was a mistake to sleep with me in the first place."

"She said that?"

"A couple of times," he mumbled, and then off Ty Lee's questioning look, he explained, "I'm…not good at taking hints, apparently." Shame burned in his face.

Try as he might, he'd been unable to stop himself from flirting with Suki, even though she'd made it very clear how she felt about him. He couldn't help it. He'd been crazy for her even before they'd slept together at his uncle's the last night of his week-long visit. But sleeping with her…having her for just one, long, blissful night… That wasn't something he'd been able to let go of yet, despite her apparent disinterest.

He'd tried. He wanted to respect how she felt and he was trying…but something in the back of his head was telling him something completely different about the situation, that giving up was a mistake. And it wasn't just his head making things a mess for him.

"So you think she meant it?"

He shrugged. "I figure she knows better than I do, and I have to respect that. And I'm trying to."

"But?"

"But what, Ty Lee? What am I going to do, force her to feel the same way about me as I feel about her? I can't do that. If I have feelings for her, then that's my problem. Even if I'm out of my mind in love with her–" He stopped himself, blanching and sitting back in his chair as his hand clapped over his mouth. "Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Fuck."

Ty Lee held up her hands, an excited look on her face that didn't bode well for him. "You're what?"

"I didn't say that," he said, his voice muffled by his fingers.

"Uh…yeah, you did."

"Shut up."

"You're in love with her? Awww...I just thought you wanted to fuck her," her voice soft and touched.

"TY LEE!"

She grinned at her and bounced in her chair. "When? How? I NEED DETAILS! Did you know you were in love with her before you guys slept together or–"

"I'm not talking about this!"

"Oh, yes, you are!" Ty Lee said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Look, we've all known that there was something between you guys before Ba Sing Se. It's pretty obvious to anyone who spends more than five minutes in the same room with the two of you. You practically eye-fuck each other and don't get me started on your little workout sessions. It's just an excuse for the two of you to dry hump!"

Zuko flushed, and started to respond, but she ran on.

"And it's only gotten worse since you guys got back. The sexual tension between the two of you is through the roof, Zuko. We're all going crazy watching you two flirt with each other."

"She's not flirting with me," he said. "She told me she's not."

"And I bet she believes that, too," Ty Lee laughed. "But as an outside observer…trust me. She is. I know Suki, Zuko. She's got this weird thing about mixing duty with pleasure. We're not supposed to fraternize with any of the palace guards or servants. She thinks it makes us appear unprofessional, and as representatives of Kyoshi and as your trusted guards we have to be above reproach in all things. If she won't even let Qing date one of your soldiers, how would it look if she started sleeping with the Fire Lord? It makes her a hypocrite and if she's worried about how it'll make the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors look, of course she'll deny everything, because what else can she do?"

Zuko stared at her for a long moment. "You seem awfully sure of her thinking."

Ty Lee shrugged. "It's a theory, but I bet I'm closer to the mark than you are, thinking she's not actually interested."

Zuko rubbed at his temple and thought a long moment. Then he sighed and looked up at her.

"I did think that too, in Ba Sing Se. I thought she was interested, and then she just shut down on me. Even if she feels the same way I do, I still have to respect her wishes, Ty Lee. She has her reasons for rejecting me—duty, hypocrisy, whatever—and it's not my job to convince her of what she wants, or act like I know better than she does. That's not how this works."

Ty Lee shook her head, but her smile was impish and fond. "Spirits, Zuko… How did she turn you down? If I swung that way, I'd bang you myself. Right here. Right on the desk."

"I'm flattered," he said flatly.

"You should be, you idiot," Ty Lee laughed.

"I am an idiot," he agreed with a sigh.

"So does she know you're in love with her?"

"No. Don't tell her."

"I won't," Ty Lee said reassuringly and then leaned forward. "But I have to ask… How did it happen?"

"What?" he asked, though he knew what she was getting at.

"Ba Sing Se. I have to know how you did it."

"I'm not giving you the horny details."

"Not the sex part!" Ty Lee corrected with an exasperated huff. "But like…the rest of it. How did you get her into bed in the first place? How did you make her unclench long enough to toss her duty out the window? And also…how was it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Like, is she as good in bed as I think she is?" Ty Lee said with a waggle of her brows.

"Ty Lee…" Zuko laughed, rubbing a hand down his face. "That… That whole night feels like it happened to someone else. And… Yes, she was as incredible as you think she would be. More so. I can't stop thinking about it, as hard as I try not to. That's why it's so hard being around her now. Before we slept together, I could hide how she makes me feel, but now… Every time I look at her I just keep seeing that night and her skin…and…"

He stopped himself, clearing his throat and shifting uncomfortably in his chair. His cheeks felt acutely warmer than they had a moment ago.

"So tell me about it. Maybe it'll help to get it out?"

"You just want to hear the filthy details."

"Maybe."

Zuko pressed his lips together, glanced at the closed door and then back at Ty Lee.

"Okay… So, we were at my uncle's... And things between us were kind of coming to a head, you might say. I definitely wanted something to finally happen between us."

"So what did you do?"

"Well…it really started when the Earth king proposed to me..."


End file.
